Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Food Stories

Florida has authorized a python hunt, and 50 have been caught: This invasive species is threatening the local fauna. From MomJones:

As we've reported here before, giant, invasive snakes are creating significant problems in Florida—and not just because they might crash your pool party or explode
after eating too much alligator. The snakes—which can grow to 18 feet
long and weigh as much as 164 pounds—have been eating native rodents and
birds, reproducing with abandon, and generally causing problems in an
ecosystem where they do not belong. That's why the state organized the
hunt, complete with rules for how to kill pythons and a cash prize:

I went trolling the Internet this morning, and found a pretty amusing discussion thread on “How to cook Burmese python” over at Chowhound.
A commenter named Veggo wrote: “I suggest a 1-day marinade with soy
sauce, orange juice concentrate, scallions, ginger, and honey. Bake it
with the marinade and baste occasionally. Florida is overrun with them;
we need to make them delicious.”

A law banning horses from Romanian roads may be
responsible for the surge in the fraudulent sale of horsemeat on the
European beef market, a French politician said yesterday...
The law, which was passed six years ago but only enforced recently,
also banned carts drawn by donkeys, leading to speculation among
food-industry officials in France that some of the “horse meat” which
has turned up on supermarket shelves in Britain, France and Sweden may,
in fact, turn out to be donkey meat. “Horses have been banned from
Romanian roads and millions of animals have been sent to the
slaughterhouse,” said Jose Bove, a veteran campaigner for small farmers who is now vice-president of the European Parliament agriculture committee.

.In J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth most Elves eat meat. The only Elves
specifically said to be vegetarians were the Green-elves of Ossiriand.
In Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth, it’s hard to find an Elf willing to
eat meat. Still, you have to wonder where Fili’s Rivendell sausage came
from.